


Paradise

by Jasherk



Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa, महाभारत | Mahabharat (TV 2013)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-25
Updated: 2016-05-05
Packaged: 2018-06-04 10:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6654556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jasherk/pseuds/Jasherk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Duryodhana hasn't found Karna at Paradise and wants to know where is he?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Paradise without your friend is not a Paradise

**Author's Note:**

  * For [geethr75](https://archiveofourown.org/users/geethr75/gifts).



> Now translated in English.  
> geethr75, thank you very much for your help with translation.

PARADISE

\- But he is in Hell.  
\- I’ll go to Hell. I'll rush in any dark hole, if it's the place there my brother is suffering.   
«Mike» N.Gumilev

At first, even with small architectural differences, Paradise looked exactly as he imagined it. It was green, bright, a little too pompous, luxuriously decorated and in full bloom.  
But he didn’t care about it. Because he could stand on his own legs again and he didn’t feel any pain and it was so good. And he stood on one of the open terraces above the wide stairs. And all his dead brothers were racing up to him.  
\- Duryodhana! Duryodhana! – Duhshashana bumped him so urgently, that both of them almost fall. Then there were all of the others.   
\- Here you are! Duryodhana! Big Brother is here!!!  
It was impossible to hug one hundred men simultaneously. So his brothers who couldn’t reach him even over other brothers' shoulders had to push the others, throw their hands away and shouted. At last they lifted him and carried him somewhere, joyfully laughing.   
\- Duryodhana is here! He came to us! – shouted Vira again and again for anyone in Paradise to know it and to became deaf because of the joyful news.   
Duryodhan laughed too because he was so happy to see all of his brothers again. Of course, he didn't doubt that he’ll meet them in Paradise anyway but after so many nights when he burned their bodies on pyres – ten, twenty, thirty of them every day – the pleasure to see them, to hear and feel them again was overwhelming. Among the various reflections of his own face, he recognized Bhurishravas, Jarasandha, unexpectedly clean highlander Ekalavya and other comrade warriors at whose pyres he stood some days ago.  
-Welcome to Paradise, Big Brother! – shouted Duhshashana directly in his ear.   
There were so much joy, and happiness, and all these faces of comrades and relatives.   
But…  
\- Where is Karna?  
Those were first words Duryodhana said after his death.   
****  
\- Where is Karna?  
It’s in your character, you will never change. His usual manner to imperiously demand answers to his questions was loud in the voice of Dhritarashtra’s firstborn. With a short nod he told his brothers to lower him to earth so he could stand by himself.   
\- We tried to find him. But he isn’t here, - answered Suvarma.   
\- Vikarna, Duhshashana and I went to authorities of this place, - Viraja said. – We wanted to speak directly to Lord Indra but couldn't find him either. There are only some minor Gods here, we don’t know them.   
\- They told us, that they will answer only to you, Big Brother, - fearlessly said Duhshashana to Duryodhana, who was beginning to seethe silently  
\- So I’ll go to them now, - Duryodhana grabbed Duhshashana’s shoulder a little too hard to hurt him. Duhshashana frowned but vigorously nodded.  
All Kauravas together stomped between carved halls of the abode of bliss, through fragrant gardens, past blooming lotuses and water lilies in the pounds, through wide squares paved with stones of different colors to one of the main palace buildings of this Kingdom of Death.  
***  
\- I’m glad to welcome you in our Paradise, the great son of Dhritarashtra.  
Tall elderly man in simple but imposing clothes met Duryodhana upstairs at the Palace of Justice.   
\- Hello, - Duryodhana never had too much reverence to Gods and all these things so he didn’t feel any awe to meet a deity face to face. – Are you the boss here?  
\- Yes, it’s me. Welcome to my palace. Are you happy to be here?   
\- Doesn’t matter. Where else could I go? - impatiently waved Duryodhana. – But if you are indeed Indra or Yamaraj, I need to have a word with you.  
\- Oh, I’m just a part of that you call Yamaraja, - cheerfully smiled the master of palace. – That’s why I don’t have any scarlet clothing or loop instead of my hand, which you must have awaited to see. But I’m the true master of this place. I’m Dharma.  
\- As you wish. Now to business. I want to know, where is my Karna? Angaraj Vasushena I mean.  
\- I know whom you are looking for, Duryodhana. I’m afraid just a few words will be not enough to answer your question.  
\- So you don’t know where he is? Or do you?   
\- I know it, don’t rush. Please, if you would like to have a seat in comfort, I'll tell you everything.   
Duryodhana followed Dharma reluctantly under the carved wooden canopy. They took seats on two different benches across a low table. Dharma waved his hand hospitably to the dishes and fruits and drinks ready for them.  
\- Would you like to have a taste?  
\- Thank you, but I’m not hungry, - Duryodhana absently took a melon, broke it in half and bit it. – Let’s go straight to business.  
\- As you wish. But, Duryodhana, at first tell me, please, why are you looking for Karna?   
\- What do you mean?   
\- All of your brothers are here. So as your other fallen relatives. Your Grandfather, your brother-in-law, your uncle, your teacher. Why do you need Angaraj for?   
\- Stupid question. Because I need him. Because he is my friend. And my fellow. I care for him and feel responsible for him. Must I have more reasons?   
\- Good. So my answer will consist from two parts: one you would like to hear and the other not.   
\- You are stalling.   
\- So I begin from the part you’ll like. After the war your saint Mother cursed Krishna. He will die in 36 years, but first he will see the destruction of Yadu kin. Without him Pandavas will leave Hastinapur and go to exile. And they will die one after other. And after that they will go to Hell.  
Duryodhana put peels on the desk and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand in unaccountably threatening manner  
\- I don’t give a shit what will happen to the Pandavas. And where will they go after their deaths. Altogether or separately. I didn't ask you about Pandavas.   
\- So we reached the other part of my answer. Karna is in Hell too. Because he is one of them.   
\- What? It’s ridiculous.   
\- Don’t roar, o king. I know what I’m talking about. And your precious Karna DID know about it.   
Duryodhana jumped up from the bench.  
\- Please, sit back and listen to me. This is a long story, but I'll try to tell it to you so short and business like, as you obviously prefer.   
\- So tell me.   
\- Vasushena or Karna as you call him was born as a son of Lord Surya. His armor-skin and his earrings were gifts from his God Father. Karna’s Mother is Queen Kunti. She gave him birth unwed and threw him into the river in a basket.   
Duryodhana sharply clenched his head with his big palms.   
\- He always was a kshatriya! He didn’t need to prove anything to anyone, he always was noble.   
\- Yes, but he was raised by a suta family. Karna respected them as his own parents even as he know they weren’t his bloodline. Krishna and Kunti told him the truth just before Kurukshetra. Krishna offered him to join Pandava and to lead them as their elder brother.  
\- He didn't tell me anything.   
\- He didn't tell about it at all. He made Krishna to swear that he won’t tell anybody either. Krishna offered him Yudhishthira’s crown and whole Bharata to rule, because he was sure you won’t fight against Karna.   
Duryodhana frowned but kept silent.   
\- Karna refused all his offers. He told that even if he would proclaim himself as the eldest son of Pandava’s mother, he would give the Kingdom to you. But he chose to hide his blood relation to your enemies. He did it because he was grateful to his stepparents, loyal to you and longed for the upcoming battle.   
\- Karna, - Duryodhana breathed.  
\- Don’t rush to glorify him. There is more that you don’t know. When Kunti didn’t succeed to draw Karna to the side of her sons, she asked him to spare her children in battle. And Karna promised not to kill anyone except Arjuna. And he kept his promise, even as it was like a betrayal to you, o king.   
\- No! He left Vrikodara to me. Twins and Yudhisthira didn’t matter by themselves. But he fought with Arjuna till his last breath.   
\- You aren’t right at the moment, but I see that you got used to defending him before you think of why he is accused.  
\- Your Arjuna killed him unarmed on the earth than Karna couldn’t defend himself. I don’t care who is his true mother, I just can’t understand why he should share the fate of Pandavas?  
\- Such is the Law, o king.  
\- What I must do to change it?  
\- It’s impossible, - kindly smiled Dharma and threw up his hands  
It was obvious from Duryodhana’s look that he could have hit this god with his fist in to the godly face.  
\- Gods! People! Circumstances! All his life you played against the noblest of men. It wasn’t enough for you that he was robbed of his warn from his birth, robbed of his right to learn and contest with other Kshatriyas? He was insulted, defamed and abused even after he became a king and proved by his deeds that he was much superior to most other warriors of Aryravarta. He was a true friend. Good son. Loyal comrade. Great hero! I don’t understand how you could condemn him to be punished after his death. What for? Gods, it was your duty to crown him, not me. You must crown him and beg him for forgiveness. – Duryodhana looked in to Dharma’s face with accusation in his eyes and added much more quietly: - He would’t refuse you.   
\- If it will console you, I can tell that the story about your friendship with Angaraja will live through many centuries and even millenniums. Even at the dark era of Kaliyuga people will know that two of you were true friends. When distant descendants of survivors will speak about you many bad things they will respect your friendship and envy it. And even people who will know you only as villains will be amazed by Karna’s unrivalled loyalty to you, o king, and will ask themselves how have you deserved such a friend?   
\- I’m incredibly comforted to know it, o Dharma, - dismissively remarked Duryodhana. – But you have changed the subject again and I have to repeat. I want Karna to be rewarded after his death as he should be.   
\- Then I have to repeat too. His fate is to share sorrows of his blood relatives.   
\- This is unjust!  
\- But our decision is final. And it’s permanent.  
\- Permanent? It was one of you, gods, who made my friend to skin himself alive! Why nobody came to Arjuna with similar request? Why the one who is flawless should pay for crimes of the people made by his newfound relatives who were always first to humiliate and diminish him. By the way it was one of them who killed him by deceit. I can’t accept such justice, Dharma.   
\- But you have no choice. It would be easier to take it as it is and live with it. You are in Paradise for heroes, your brothers and relatives are here. You should feel proud, should be happy, should rest, until time for your next rebirth will come. You can’t change anything any way.   
\- And what if I can?   
If he was alive those words would have sounded much more threatening but it wasn’t bad even as it was now.   
\- And what will you do, Duryodhnana?  
\- Duhshashana! Duchshacha!  
His Brothers came from one of wooden pillars as if they waited for him to call them.  
\- Duchshacha, find our uncle. Tell him that I need him. Duhshashana, come here, help yourself.   
Duhshashana eagerly settled himself on the bench next to Duryodhana as simple as he was in his life.   
\- Duhshashana, what will you think if I say that I’m going to smash, break and destroy everything here?   
\- Sound good to me, Big Brother. And how long will we smash?  
\- As long as there will be things to smash and break.  
\- Cool! Some action will be fine.   
\- Duryodhana, don’t try to threaten me, - smiled Dharma. – I think you perfectly understand that everything here is made by yours and others imagination about the afterlife place for warriors. You can’t harm it, because it isn’t real. Everything you destroy will remake itself again and again.   
\- Ow. Maybe I’m not so learned about this afterlife things, - smoothly and gently said Duryodhana. – But as much as I know all warriors fallen on battlefield deserve some rest and pleasures here. And there are a lot more people in this Paradise than me and my brothers. And I’m afraid, that my and my brothers activity will sadden the happy days of all these fallen heroes. So we’ll have some kind of logical paradox. And I think my uncle will tell me a couple of good ideas how I can taint your life in the way so you’ll be ready to satisfy my humble request.   
Duhshashana broke the melon by the same movement as Duryodhana did it previously and bit it like a beast with a satisfied grumble.   
Dharma looked at him deep in his thoughts.   
\- I hope you understand, o king, that you can be punished for your behavior.   
Duryodhana smirked and held his chin high.  
\- I must admit that you announce your brothers involvement at all your future misdeeds in advance. So you condemn to your punishment all of them too. Why do you think that you have a right to play with their afterlife fate at your every whim?   
\- Duhshashana, are you ready to risk all these heavenly pleasures if I want to?   
\- Of course! You know it.   
\- And if you know that it will lead to bad consequences?  
\- We’ll go where you go, - casually shrugged Duhshashana.   
Dharma shook his head and asked:   
\- And don’t you think it’s cruel to do it to your own brothers, king? You have already condemned all of them to death once. Don’t you feel any remorse?   
\- Don’t push me, Dharma, - Duryodhana calmly looked in the eyes of god. – Don’t need to tell me that you, gods don’t know that I’m talking about. It was me who every day buried my brothers. Ten, twelve, twenty, thirty of them every day. Do you know what I felt? I felt as my hands, my chest and my guts, my legs, my back, my shoulders and my head got numb and frozen, and then burn in the fire. Every day I sent myself to battle and then burned my own bodies in the evening. Then I understood that Shiva’s boon to our mother was the funniest joke ever. The meat blob that she bore and Vyasa divided at 101 parts and raised in pots in reality stayed just the one big meat blob. Because every one of my 99 brothers is me.   
\- Daring words, Duryodhana. And how about your brother Vikarna, who disagreed with you?   
\- Why not? Duhshashana argued with me too. And others sometimes. I don’t know, great Dharma, how about you, gods, but people can sometimes doubt and even mistrust their decisions. But we – a hundred of Kaurava brothers – are always there as one man. And our sister Duchshala is also a part of this one being, the most mysterious and incomprehensible part for us. But anyway she is also myself. And in her blood me and my brothers are still alive in the world.   
\- I didn't realize you understood it.   
\- Doesn’t matter. Thanks for refreshments, Dharma. It's time for me and my brothers to meet uncle and discuss with him our plan how to harm your Paradise as much as possible, - Duryodhana and Duhshashana simultaneously stood and stamped to the stairs synchronously , as if to prove previous Duryodhana’s words. – And you may think how you can pull my Karna out of Hell. Because I will not stop till I have him back with me.   
Dharma looked at their backs with an unreadable expression on his affable face.   
*****  
To be continued


	2. "I will find you"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And how much are you ready to sacrifice for your friend?

Part II

\- I believe, Duryodhana, that you perfectly understand that all the disorder you caused together with your brothers is useless. As I’ve said previously, everything in this Paradise is an illusion. It doesn’t matter how much you destroy, everything will repair itself without any sign of damage.  
Duryodhana frowned and kept silent. He understood the futility of his war with magical Paradise almost immediately, but he couldn’t reconcile. And he hadn’t even an opportunity to engage in cruel austerity or to dictate his will to the gods. This place didn’t suit this purpose. And even his own body was as much an illusion here as other marvels of the heavenly kingdom.  
\- Duryodhana, I’m not obliged to discuss it with you, but I want to explain you; the unrest and disquiet of your soul that you feel, because you know that your friend Karna stands in Hell, are kind of punishment for the wrongdoings of your life.  
\- Wrongdoings? What are you talking about?  
\- You have a lot of them, whether you agree with it or not. And your soul must suffer so you can repay them. As you see there isn’t any option to make soul suffer physically, but your concern for your friend is enough for your punishment.   
\- Dog’s shit, - Duryodhana swore. – You are lying. You already told me that Karna is in Hell because of his blood relation to Pandavas, and now you insist that he went there because of me.   
\- There are a lot of different reasons.   
\- I don’t care. I want to save him.  
\- And how much are you ready to sacrifice for this purpose?  
\- What do you mean?  
\- Are you ready to sacrifice the other children of your own mother for him?  
\- We’ve already discussed it. Everyone of my brothers is me.  
\- And are you ready to sacrifice yourself? Are you ready to take his place instead of him?   
Duryodhana tightly shut his mouth.   
\- I like that you don’t hurry to answer my question. Firstly, it won’t do any good. If Karna comes here, he will struggle to find you and then if he gets to know that you’ve changed places with him, he will suffer much more than before it. Secondly, you want you two to be together, but you won’t ever see each other again. Ever. We decided it to be so.  
\- Freaks, - snorted Duryodhana, than went to the railing and looked at blooming gardens of Heaven.   
Dharma waited patiently for his answer.  
\- When I can change with him?  
***  
It was a strange place. Cracked marble columns covered with moss and mold drowned in a damp fog. Somewhere between them could be seen heavily damaged statues without hands and heads. Ancient trees bent their bare branches to the waters of an obviously artificial rectangular pond. Former glory had dissolved in mist and merged with it. All around looked damp, abandoned, dead. All of it was alien to what he used to see in life. Totally alien.  
Perhaps he should feel cold. Should feel sad here.   
But he felt only blunt grim happiness because he sat leaning with his back to the back of the one he wasn’t supposed to meet ever again. He could feel his wide shoulders, strong back, feel his nape with his own. They sat on the bare earth, leaning back to back and looked at opposite directions.  
\- You did it. You really did it.  
He can hear the pride and surprise in Karna’s voice. He was almost used to hear these emotions in his voice when his friend talked of his actions.   
\- Did you have any doubts in me? - smugly grinned Duryodhana.  
\- You didn’t have to do it. You could have just left everything be.  
\- I can’t.  
\- No, you can, - insisted Karna and softly added: - I know, you can. It’s natural. And you did not have any duty to do so. That’s why I value so high that you did it. For me.   
\- Please don’t.  
\- Don’t interrupt me. All my life, Duryodhana, you were the only one, who helped me, supported me, believed in me, sometimes even more than I did. It was you who didn’t allowed me to sink in the filth, where everybody were fervently pushing me in to. You are my best and only friend. You always were ready to fight for me. And you didn’t care with whom you shall fight.   
This meeting in afterlife seemed almost impossible. But they sat back to back and talked limited only by time and only one condition: don’t see each other.  
\- Duryodhana, I must tell you… I must confess. I haven’t told you. I should to but I couldn’t force myself to do so. Or may be I didn’t want. It doesn’t matter now why I didn’t. I’m one of them. Queen Kunti gave birth to me when she was a Princess. I swear, I didn’t know it. Krishna told me than he came to negotiate for peace.   
\- I know it, - Duryodhana sighed. – Dharma told me.   
\- Forgive me.   
\- What for? That’s not your fault. I didn’t care from which family you were when everybody thought you a suta. Why should I treat you worse if you are a misbegotten son of Kunti and Sun God? It‘s nonsense. I value you not for your lineage, stupid Karna.   
\- Duryodhana… thank you.  
\- But I know that my Karna refused to trade me for his half-good brothers. Even if, may be, they did more to cause your decision than I did.   
They laughed together as they were used to do, loudly and openly. And this laugh was out of place between dead trees, statues and columns frozen in time, over unwavering water and bare earth.   
\- Duryodhana, didn’t you think that perhaps I wasn’t right. If I had agreed to Krishna’s proposal, I wouldn’t have fight you on their side anyway. But I could have forced them to go to Anga as my younger brothers to avoid the War. And we wouldn’t have lost so many warriors, our sons, brothers, comrades. I could have solved our situation without bloodshed.   
\- Then how could we have fucked up such a great battle?  
\- We fucked it up anyway.  
They both laughed again, even if there wasn’t anything funny at all. And then Duryodhana said:  
\- They won by deceit. Krishna taught them how to break the rules of a Kshatriya. You, me, guru Drona and Grandfather were all killed not fairly. So I don’t think we lost.   
\- Duryodhana, - Karna said his name only but with the sound of it he tells how happy he feels that even afterlife hasn’t changed his stubborn friend's personality.   
The gray light around them slowly darkened, eating one by one the columns and statues.   
\- What do you think, how soon we will be reborn again?  
\- I don’t know. Hope sooner than later.   
\- I will find you in our next life.   
\- I know. I will seek you too.  
\- And when we find each other we will show all of them?   
\- All of whom?   
\- Doesn’t matter. We will turn this cruel universe upside down. We will bring down their unjust system of rules.   
\- Do you honestly believe in your words?  
\- We can do anything that we want. We can turn against gods themselves if you’ll support me. And you will support me, won’t you?  
\- Everywhere, every time. I will support any crazy shit you want to do.   
They laughed again more and more sinking in to darkness.   
\- It seems we have already given solemn unrealistic vows to each other?  
\- And don’t you like to do it again?   
Gloom finally swallowed them. And in this pitch darkness they both simultaneously turned to each other, groped hands and press foreheads to each other.   
\- I will find you. Believe me I know it.   
\- I believe you. I will find you myself.   
\- I know it.

fin


End file.
